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by Malachi Makhubela
Historical note: The statistics, institutional details, descriptions of personnel and programs, and other time-sensitive information in this article reflect the period when Malachi Makhubela wrote it. References such as "currently," "recent," and "the past two decades" refer to that period rather than the present. The author biography also describes his circumstances at the time of writing.
The Church of the Nazarene began planting churches in what is now Eswatini about 1911 when Harmon Schmelzenbach arrived at Endzingeni (then named Peniel). Over the past century, the church has steadily grown, with that growth accelerating in some recent decades.
Ministries established by Nazarenes in Eswatini include several educational institutions and health care facilities. In the past several years, some missiologists and experts on the growth of the church have criticized such institutions as being a hindrance to church health and growth. I have, however, seen with my own eyes how instrumental institutions like a Bible college, a teacher training college, a hospital, clinics, a nursing college, elementary schools, high schools, and an orphanage have been in the salvation of souls and the verifiable growth of the church. Let me highlight some universally accepted church growth principles I have seen at work in Nazarene institutions in Eswatini.
The early converts in Eswatini were largely illiterate. So, literacy programs were started right away to give them the ability to read the Bible. The first school at Grace Church (Phophonyane) and the Bible school at Pigg's Peak were both established with this purpose in mind. Grace Church grew because the first twenty students of the school were among the first to be won to Christ. They witnessed to their families and brought them and others to church. Then, the students and other converts of Grace Church under Etta Innes helped clear the grounds for a church building at Pigg's Peak in 1914. Our historians consider this the first truly African project of the church.
Further evidence that the institutions give priority to evangelism can be seen in the careful selection of teaching staff, nurses, physicians, and others. A conscious effort is made to select only committed and dedicated Christians who will use their contact with people to evangelize and win them to Christ and the Church. This key factor in hiring staff has been true even in those institutions where the government is paying almost all the bills.
Another area of evangelistic strength to which institutions have contributed has been in the training of skilled Christian workers like nurses who serve not only in Nazarene clinics but also in government ones. Likewise, the teacher training college sends out qualified Christian teachers whose witness has strengthened the church and contributed to its growth even in remote parts of the country. At the end of each year, school administrators from all over Eswatini actively recruit graduates of Nazarene institutions, underscoring the quality of our graduates.
One of the most recent signs of the priority given to evangelism has been the schools' evangelism program that is run in all 34 Nazarene primary schools, the three high schools, and the teacher training college. An evangelist is appointed to conduct school revivals throughout the year. About 1,300 people come to faith in Christ each year in these revivals. Not all join the Church of the Nazarene, of course. Still, church membership and Sunday school attendance have shown percentage increases since the hiring of a school evangelist.
As part of its cultural mandate,1 the Church must seek to meet the physical and social needs of the society in which it operates. To this end, the Eswatini Church of the Nazarene has established orphanages, health centers, and schools. William Greathouse once wrote: "Compassion lay at the heart of Christ's ministry. It was an authentic expression of holiness. . . but the church was reluctant to embrace this ministry as a basic element in its mission. There was lingering apprehension that such activity might dilute the primary emphasis on evangelism. . . It was perceived that somehow the two were mutually exclusive."
Early Nazarene workers in Eswatini realized, however, that when the church abandons certain areas of human life, a vacuum is created that will be filled in one way or another. One result is that people may look for solutions in beliefs and practices incompatible with the Christian faith, such as witchcraft and spirit worship.
So, medical missions work was introduced by Nazarenes into Eswatini in 1917. Not long after that, a hospital was built in memory of Raleigh Fitkin, son of Nazarene missions promoter Susan N. Fitkin. In a recent year, that hospital in Manzini treated 55,000 patients, while its fifteen clinics served 120,000 more. It also enrolled 121 nurses for training.
Dr. William Ruche of the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh has said that there are no two fields more closely allied than those of medicine and religion. He asserted: "There is no profession in which the professional man sees his clients at deeply religious moments so often as in the practice of medicine." This is because people in severe suffering or near death feel the need for religion. Our many medical workers have made their healing ministry a fruitful vehicle for evangelism and church growth in Eswatini.
Even ministries that meet practical needs, such as our orphanages and girls' homes, have been important to the growth of the church. Out of them have come Spirit-filled evangelists, pastors, preachers' wives, and Christian laypeople.
1 The cultural mandate is humanity's stewardship obligation to care for the earth God has entrusted to it (Gen. 1:26-28). The cultural mandate goes hand in hand with the evangelistic mandate.
Many preaching points in Eswatini, locally called waysides, later became churches. They began because someone who came into contact with the institutions received follow-up visits and invited the church to begin a ministry in their community. In some instances, these people themselves took the lead in starting a congregation as they began to witness for Christ.
Institutional staff and students participate in visiting, teaching Sunday school, preaching, or interpreting for missionaries at outstations, or preaching points beyond the mission stations. Missionaries serving in institutions often provide transportation to these preaching points, which can be up to 20 miles from the mission stations. The church at Manzini (Sharpe Memorial Church) has been blessed with a particularly large concentration of nearby Nazarene institutions. By using the resources of these institutions, that church has been able to help establish 15 organized congregations in the past two decades. Currently, it is nurturing seven more preaching points and developing congregations. It has more than 500 members, with a thousand enrolled in Sunday school.
In a recent year, the Eswatini Northern District had 595 "institutional workers," 41 ordained pastors, and 38 licensed ministers. These institutional workers have positively influenced Nazarene church growth in Eswatini. They have the potential to contribute even more to church growth.
People reached through the institutions come from diverse backgrounds. Many people reached through these institutions are searching for truth and meaning in their lives. For some, traditional beliefs involving witchcraft, ancestral spirits, and demons have failed to satisfy that longing. Such beliefs are also losing credibility as people encounter a modern scientific worldview. These experiences can make people receptive to the gospel.
The large number of applications to enter our Nazarene schools each year shows that many want their children exposed to Christian influences. These are "winnable people," as A. R. Tippett put it.
Nazarene school evangelist Grace Masilela is a converted witch doctor and former prophetess in a Zionist religious movement in southern Africa. She is a powerful witness of how Christ broke the bonds of demons in her life. Her personal experience has been convincing to young people from similar backgrounds. Many go back home to tell the story of Christ to their relatives.
Indeed, people who are sick, unsettled, illiterate, and seeking knowledge and longing for meaning and answers to the ultimate questions of life are receptive to the gospel of Christ. Many people who seek services offered by Nazarene institutions have these needs. Those seeking services have even included refugees from Mozambique.
In a recent decade, Eswatini Nazarene churches had an average annual growth rate of 5.76% and a decadal growth rate of 74%. By global church growth assessment standards, that is good growth. This growth pattern has been more pronounced after some leadership changes.
I'm convinced that our institutions and the carefully selected Christian workers who staff them will continue to play an important part in Nazarene church growth in Eswatini. May God forbid that it be otherwise.
As Malachi Makhubela notes, providing medical care and running an educational institution can benefit a church in several ways. Here are six of them:
-- Howard Culbertson, hculbert@snu.edu